Bumps and bruises are a natural consequence of children acting on their curiosity and exploring their environment. Even when you make every effort to supervise your children and keep them away from danger, it is not always possible to prevent children from getting injuries serious enough to require treatment. When you enroll your children in daycare, you do so after doing your due diligence to make sure that the children will be safe there. Accidents can happen at daycare, too, but if the injuries are more severe than something a Band-Aid can fix, it may be that the daycare was not living up to its contractual obligation to provide adequate supervision. The Tulsa child injury lawyers at BDIW Law can help you recover compensation if your child has suffered a serious injury at daycare.
Daycare accidents can be every parent’s worst nightmare. Reach out to our Personal Injury Lawyer in Tulsa for assistance.
Who is Legally Responsible When Children Get Injured at Daycare?
People who get injured because of the negligence of another person, business, or public entity have the right to file a personal injury lawsuit and collect damages. When the injured person is a minor, the child’s parents can sue on the child’s behalf. You may have grounds for a lawsuit against your child’s daycare if it did not comply with state or county regulations, such as if the daycare was understaffed at the time of the incident, or if dangerous items were within the children’s reach.
If your child got injured because another child attacked them, you might have a case against the aggressor child’s parents. Likewise, if a daycare employee intentionally (such as by hitting the child to discipline them) or accidentally injured your child (such as by transporting the child in a car without an age-appropriate car seat and getting in an accident), you might have a case against the employee personally. In these cases, the employee could also face criminal penalties.
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SPEAK TO AN ATTORNEY TODAYWhat About “No Liability” Clauses in Daycare Contracts?
Many contracts between daycare facilities and the parents who enroll their children there include “no liability” clauses, ostensibly protecting the daycare center from lawsuits related to accidental injuries that children sustain there. Those clauses are not as all-encompassing as they sound; they do not excuse negligence. If you can show that your child’s injuries were preventable, you might still be able to sue.
Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit on Behalf of Your Child
Oklahoma’s “next friend” law allows you, as your minor child’s closest adult relative, to file a personal injury lawsuit on your child’s behalf. Any damages the court awards belong to your child, not to you. The court will order you to deposit the money in a savings account or trust, which will become the child’s property when the child turns 18. Meanwhile, you can only withdraw money from the account or trust to use for the child’s medical bills or other expenses related to the child’s care.
To find out more about recovering compensation for the expenses resulting from a child’s injuries at daycare, contact BDIW Law in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
